“I don’t expect there will be a settlement,” attorney Bert Fields told TheWrap, after reports that the case had gone to private mediation. “This isn’t just about money. We would want the record made absolutely clear with some prominence that their story was not true. They’d have to say it on the cover, and there would have to be some financial amount.”

Talk about negotiating in the press. Cruise filed his $50 million defamation lawsuit against Bauer Publishing Company in October, claiming that Life & Style and In Touch said he had abandoned his daughter, Suri, following his split from wife Katie Holmes.

Fields said the private mediation, reported March 5, was essentially a pro forma move in parallel to the path to a courtroom trial. “You never leave the trial calendar,” he said. “You’re moving toward trial while mediating.”

TheWrap reached out to the lawyers representing Bauer Media for response, but did not hear back.